Murder by Rites by MJ Marks

Author:MJ Marks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laughing Warrior Publishing
Published: 2021-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

I followed Cooper across the sky bridge to the West Campus of the hospital. Taking the garage elevator down to the first floor, we got into his ten-year-old, beat up, green and rust colored foreign four-door sedan.

Lunchtime in downtown Antelope Springs is not lunchtime in downtown New York or Los Angeles, but for a tourist town with a population of 70,000 people, with mostly one-way streets squeezed into seven square blocks, it offered all the inconveniences of its much larger relatives. There were only three routes from the hospital to Route 66. The most direct and shortest was only two miles straight through the heart of the main business and shopping district hoping not to catch one of the one hundred freight trains that run through town. Of the two other routes, one would add a mile to our travels and still have us hoping a freight train wasn’t coming through when we came to the tracks. The third route would be the longest at 6.5 miles but would bypass downtown and have an overpass to cross the tracks.

Choosing the longer but less irritating route, Cooper made a left onto Badger Street. We saw Roxanne’s car making a right onto Cypress Avenue. Taking Cypress to Fifth Street, Cooper drove in the left-hand lane looking in his rear view mirror every few seconds. Noticing him laughing, I tapped Cooper, shrugging my shoulders in a “what gives?” expression. Gesturing his head to his right, I checked the passenger side mirror. “Red S.U.V.?” I asked. Cooper nodded.

Pointing to Roxanne crossing over Route 66 and the Fifth Street overpass, Cooper pulled into the far left of the two left-hand turn lanes. The SUV, now four cars behind, followed. Waiting for the turn signal, I tapped Cooper, a concerned look on my face.

He answered my question, “Yes, I’m really an FBI agent. No, I’m not working for Elizabeth Reed, I’ve been undercover for ten years. When the murders began, I realized I couldn’t tackle both, so I suggested to my boss that we call you in.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, clutching my hand to my chest. “You suggested?”

“Yep. I followed that case in Baltimore and read the book. I needed someone to take over the murders while I concentrated on Elizabeth. I couldn’t trust the ASPD. I’ll tell you the rest after we get to my house. First, I have to lose those two clowns, uh, agents following us,” he said, jerking his head back. “Zim will be pissed. He’s my boss”

The light turned green and Cooper eased into the left-hand lane going east on Route 66. Two miles up the road, East Route 66 split off to the right. Going straight, the road became North Highway 99. Stopping for a red light just past the Antelope Springs Mall, I checked behind us.

“Still there,” I said. The light turned green. Cooper began weaving through traffic, three crowded lanes at his disposal. We made the green light at Republic Avenue, then sped up to make the next light at N.

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